Pinterest marketing for businesses: B2B content ideas

Imagine an idea board, shopping catalog and marketing platform all wrapped-up in one. Now put a bright red pin on it, and there you go—you know what we’re talking about! With over 250 million active monthly users, Pinterest is a hive of activity. Every day the network is buzzing with whatever you’re looking for—from DIY crafts, to health tips and even marketing lessons!

By now, we know it takes more than versatility to keep a network relevant long enough. Pinterest has continued to grow whilst several other networks peaked and faded away, and we’ll tell you how in one word—SEO. Pinterest brings impressive search engine traffic to the content hosted on it, and ranks as the second best SEO driver, only next to Facebook with its massive swarm of 2 billion active monthly users. Now that’s worth a double-take for anyone.

But with the art-house vibe that it has going on—between gardening tips and DIY crafts—can B2B marketing thrive on a platform like Pinterest? The short answer is yes. Yes, it can.

Because most things on a marketer’s checklist—from building ideas and strategies, comparing data, down to sharing notes and inspiration—can all be done visually. Most brands with existing marketing content can optimize it for Pinterest marketing. And if you’re on social media with no content strategy that can itself lend to visual marketing—maybe it’s time to rethink your strategy from scratch.

It’s not easy, we’ll tell you that at the outset. With most brand content being B2Cs flaunting lovely destination photos, product line-ups and other picturesque things, a B2B brand has the added challenge of thinking outside the box. So we’ve compiled a set of workable ideas to help you on your way to establishing a presence on Pinterest. Just remember to link each Pin you make to the source that you want to generate traffic for!

Here are some Pinterest B2B content ideas to try on for size

1. Make Infographics

No other network soaks up a good Infographic like Pinterest does. Not only do brands create cool infographics to share on Pinterest, but they have whole boards dedicated to it. And it’s fairly easy to make them as well—if you don’t have a fresh stack of statistics to work on, you can use any existing video or even help guide content you may have, and turn them into an infographic.

2. Collaborative boards

With a little imagination, you can use Pinterest boards to brainstorm with people – including your followers. Using a Group board, you can pin things together, for a theme, event etc to build more engagement for your board. You can also use this format to create contests and user-driven campaigns by keeping one board dedicated to it and giving your followers access to it.

3. Use excerpts and snippets to build interest

Have a new ebook that you want to get downloads on? Or a video lesson that you want to spread the word about? You can use Pinterest boards to build interest around these kinds of content, and still not give it all away (because you still want those website clicks, downloads, and views where it counts!). It could be a book cover, a teaser for video content, the first few pages of the ebook.

4. Brand content

While everything you put up on Pinterest is technically “brand content”, we’re talking about content that’s focused on your product and your business. These could be pictures of your workspace, your merchandise, team outings, etc. While these aren’t an obvious choice for Pinterest, ensure that the pins are well-composed and pique the interest of your followers!

5. Repurpose blogs minimally

Think Tumblr quotes, but targeted for businesses. Did you know the educational content you create in the form of blogs or articles can be sized-down to visual content? These can be photo quotes, guides or any piece of content that can be represented visually. This not only helps in repurposing content across platforms but also helps get traction with the audience with short browsing spans. This can be beneficial, especially when you’re working around long-form content. All it needs is, identifying the salient points and creating visual data for it.

6. Customer stories

Customer stories are one of the best ways to reinforce the position your business has in your industry. Not only do they help build trust in what you offer, but also demonstrate ways in which your product/service can be utilized. Similarly, testimonials can also be Pinned, on your boards to show your audience how your brand’s doing.

7. General interest content

With all this focused marketing content, where does all the rest of the stuff go? The funny posts, interesting quips, humor content et al! Just create a separate board for it all—while this may not be your mainstay, it’s a way to keep things light and moving and retain your audience.

The one thing you need to remember is that the Pinterest algorithm is not chronological and prioritizes pins based on engagement. So when in doubt, always quality over quantity! So off you go, get your Pinterest strategy going! And if you feel we’ve missed out on a cool Pinning idea, let us know—the comments section is always open for you.